Hot Chocolate
by loveathenaa
Summary: In which Queenie implores Tina to go bring the boys some hot chocolate.


Queenie looked over at their bedroom expectantly, her raised eyebrows poised over her face. The apartment was quiet, too quiet for her tastes. Her sister had just brought _men_ home, something that never happened, and she had just continued on with life as normal. Tina even appeared slightly more boring than normal, subdued and sitting at the table. Of course, Queenie knew that Tina was simply thinking about Mr. Scamander, but she also knew that Tina would rather die than do something about it. She sighed softly and looked over at Tina imploring, who ignored her and continued reading her newspaper. She wanted nothing more than for Tina to go and talk to them. The radiator in the back hummed along, contributing to the sound of emptiness in a thoroughly full house. Queenie sighed once more at Tina's gesture and pulled a chair over, plopping down with a small thud.

Tina rolled her eyes at her sister's antics and looked up. Queenie only acted up when she had something that she wanted. Her eyes narrowed at the younger sister, who simply looked at her with no expression whatsoever, her eyes wide and blank. "I'm not the _Legilimens_ here," Tina said sternly as she turned a page in her newspaper. "I can't read your mind. If you have something to say, just say it."

Queenie nodded at Tina's words (of course, she was right) and took a deep breath. It was regarding Newt, and she knew that Tina wouldn't appreciate it. Queenie continued on anyways. "Well, they're our guests," she said with trepidation. "I just thought that we might treat them a little better, you know? Offer up some hospitality." She waited for her sister's response impatiently.

Tina looked up incredulously, her brown eyes wide in shock. "You already made that man a strudel with magic! You know that we have to Obliviate his mind later. It's the law. It's no use getting so attached, Queenie," Tina warned. "And Newt is nothing but trouble. You don't need to get him anything extra. You're already offering a place to sleep and some food to him and to that No-Maj. Newt is my problem at the end of the day, and Jacob won't even remember that you treated him nicely."

"I know," the younger one replied with sadness. Jacob made her feel all fuzzy inside, and she desperately wished that she could get to know him better, but it probably would never happen. Not in their time, at least. "I know," she repeated once more. "But they're still our guests. What would Mom and Dad think if we didn't treat them a little bit nicer? And you've just put up a barrier against Newt. I don't know what kind of problems you have with Mr. Scamander, but I think that he is a perfectly respectable and nice man," Queenie said with a smile. Her strawberry-blonde curls glinted underneath the light and her eyes got a little bit brighter when she brought up Tina's affair.

Tina scoffed and turned another page in her newspaper. Queenie often liked to meddle in Tina's love affairs, but Tina was perfectly fine being the Goldstein maid while Queenie went left and right on dates and to parties. The newspaper ruffled and fell to the floor, and Tina cursed under her breath as she bent over to retrieve it. "That man has caused me nothing but trouble today," she replied to Queenie's sentiment, coming back up and setting the newspaper back up again. "You've only seen him for a few minutes; you don't really know what he's like. What makes you think that he's better than he appears?"

"I can read his mind," Queenie countered, her body leaning in towards Tina as Tina clenched her jaw. "And he has nothing but love for his creatures, something that I'm sure even you can't denounce as horrid. And- there's a very specific girl that he can't get out of his mind," Queenie hinted with a high-pitched voice as she saw Tina's brow furrow.

"What do you mean?" Tina asked with confusion. "He hasn't met anybody here yet but me and that Mary Lou lady who leads the Second Salemers. And I hope that he isn't going to go out looking for her, because she is going to torture him if she finds out that he's a wizard." The Second Salemers were this intense, almost radical group that hated anybody with connections to magic and unexplained phenomena. She had already gotten in trouble because of them once before- if Newt wasn't casted out by Mary Lou herself, then MACUSA would be more than happy to do the job.

"Exactly." Queenie said with a little jump as she giggled. Tina was sure to get the memo now that she had reduced the available pool to two people- a witch and a witch-hater. It was true that Newt Scamander's mind was virtually filled to the brim of Tina-isms: how she walked, how she looked and behaved, how she treated him. Tina was all that Newt could think about. Queenie could physically feel his confusion and emotions through the walls.

"Exactly what?" Tina asked, even more confused. Men had never been her area of expertise because she was so cold and cut-off. Who could Queenie have possibly been talking about? If not Mary Lou, then who? Her? That was preposterous. She sighed as Queenie frowned at her and instead just pointed to the cupboard to get her to stop talking. "You can make them some hot chocolate," she said, "and be sure to ask about that specific girl that Newt keeps thinking about, eh? I'd love to know." She resumed reading her newspaper, content with ending the conversation.

Queenie just sighed at her sister's obliviousness and danced on over the counter, where she pulled some hot chocolate mix from the cupboard. Using her wand, she prepared a tray and two cups, mixing in the powder. The Goldstein sisters made a batch of chocolate powder at the beginning of every month as a family tradition. Many people said that theirs was the best hot cocoa that they had ever tasted! She added some rich, foamy milk and sprinkled some cinnamon as well- what she liked to call the "Queenie touch". After all of this was finished, she snuck a quick glance over at Tina, who was fully immersed in her newspaper. Queenie added a little touch of Tina's perfume to the coaster underneath Newt's cup for good measure. Maybe it would "push him over the edge", so to speak.

She turned over to face her sister. "The cocoa's done," she announced with a smile.

Tina looked up. "Congratulations," she said, dead-panned as she returned to her newspaper. There was a particularly interesting section about the crimes in the area as of late. Many homes were being ripped up and torn apart, people being struck dead with black marks all over their bodies. It certainly looked like an Obscurus and definitely couldn't have been a human, but Tina couldn't bring herself to consider the implications of one in New York City. Besides- there hadn't been one in New York for centuries. Why would there be one now?

Queenie pushed the tray over to Tina, her agenda set in place. She was going to get Tina to go into the boy's room. "I made it, you can deliver it," she offered with a slight bite of her lip. All she had to do was get Tina to look and interact with Mr. Scamander a little bit. She was sure that that was all the pair needed to get the ball rolling. Contrary to her plans, Tina scoffed, causing Queenie to nudge the tray over a bit once more. "Yeah, you can do it," she said softly. "I'm sure the boys will be happy to see you."

Tina grimaced and looked at her sister. "First of all," Tina said as she got up and tightened her pants, "nobody is ever happy to see me. And second of all, you're the one who wanted to make them hot chocolate in the first place! Why don't you serve it to them yourself?" Tina was honestly getting fed up as Queenie kept on interrupting her reading session.

"To get you to talk to Newt, I'd do anything," Queenie said softly as she looked at Tina lovingly. Tina looked at Queenie sharply and narrowed her eyes, to which Queenie simply shrugged. "I know what you're thinking."

"That you're being just a little bit irritating right now?" Tina supplied. She honestly hoped that Queenie hadn't pried into her mind again, because her thoughts were not particularly like her as of late. Too many thoughts about Newt, the interesting- no, irritating- traveler from afar.

"You're interested," Queenie smiled. "There's something about him, something that keeps tugging at you. But you don't know what, and you want to find out." Queenie tucked a piece of hair back behind her ear, and shuffled some papers on the table. "It's like you don't think that you can look at him too long, or if you do, something happens that makes you look away. It's almost uncomfortable. Almost. He confuses you, a little bit. His personality, and his origin, and his relationship with his creatures. But I think that I sense a little bit of longing in there, a little bit of love." Queenie implored Tina to look at her, who had, by this time, turned bright red and was staring at the floor rather intently. So she had looked into her mind.

"And you deserve love, Teenie," Queenie said. "You work so hard, and you're such an amazing person. I would have no greater joy than to share you with someone else, but you tend to push people away when they make you vulnerable. And Newt Scamander makes you vulnerable, and you don't feel comfortable with what you're feeling. You might not even know what you're feeling. But I want you to go in there and see him, maybe talk to him. I have a feeling that he's going to be staying with us for a while. There's no rush," Queenie pushed the tray over to Tina, who grasped the handles tightly until her knuckles turned white.

"I thought I told you that I don't like it when you read my mind," she said lowly as she brought the tray up to her chest. Queenie shrugged her shoulders up and down sheepishly, as a sort of apology. Tina sighed, and a slight smile appeared on her face, forgiving her sister for using her power to look into her mind. She needed someone to push her, every now and then. Otherwise she would never do anything about her life outside of her work. And she was fascinated by Newt- he made her happy and light-hearted in a way that usually takes people years to do. "I'll take it to them," she compromised. "Thank you for looking out for me. But please don't do this again," she asked. "My mind is closed to you now, right?"

"Sure," Queenie placated her sister, knowing full well that she had no intention of stopping. "Now go! The boys are waiting for their beverages."


End file.
